


The New Normal?

by JuliannaRosenburgh



Series: Project Adrien [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Bad Parenting, Child Neglect, Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, Emotional Manipulation, Gen, Hawk Moth is Gabriel Agreste, Modeling, Parent-Child Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-18
Updated: 2017-04-18
Packaged: 2018-10-20 10:50:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10661040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JuliannaRosenburgh/pseuds/JuliannaRosenburgh
Summary: Adrien skips lunch. It's not like he needs the calories. He feels lighter without the extra weight of a newly digested meal weighing him down.





	The New Normal?

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a couple months ago and forgot to upload it. Sorry. Possible triggers for disordered eating and also for ordered weight loss by another person. I had warned for Adrien gaining an eating disorder in this in the first one and the start of it is here.

Adrien skips lunch. It's not like he needs the calories. He feels lighter without the extra weight of a newly digested meal weighing him down. 

He has fencing practice first thing after school. Then a modeling shoot for his father's brand right after that. 

The result is that by the time he finally walks back in through the front door it's been over twelve hours since he's eaten.

He's walking to his bedroom to discard his schoolbag when his name is called in his father's stern voice. His father is standing at the door of his office. Adrien follows him into the room. 

"I hear the shoot went well." Gabriel says once the door is shut. It isn't a question. He waves towards a chair pushed to the side of the room. Adrien carefully picks it up and carries it in front of the desk so that he's sitting across from his father. The man would be thoroughly unimpressed if he dragged it across the floor. 

Adrien wants to squirm under his father's piercing gaze, but also is desperate to bask in the attention he is receiving. He is terrified to do anything that will disrupt this new normal. 

"So how is school?" His father asks, hands folded on top his desk, back straight. 

"Um, it's going well. I'm getting good grades and I've made some friends," he shifts in his chair, anxiously hoping that those were the things his father wanted to hear. _Maybe I should have left off the part about friends._

"Hmmm, just don't let them distract you from your studies or other responsibilities. Those come first," his father tells him. Well, it could have gone worse. 

"Of course, Pére," he nods, then stops himself, concerned that it looks foolish. He stares down at his lap. He wants to fidgit, but Gabriel Agreste does not approve of fidgeting. 

"How is your 'soccer' wound?" his father asks. It's been a week since his fight with Le Papillon. 

"It's getting better. I've been taking the pills," Adrien reports. He probably needs another dose now. It's beginning to ache again. 

He feels hazy from hunger. That reminds him. 

"I've lost another pound," he tells his father, "I'm still working on the second one." 

"Well keep working at it," Gabriel replies. 

"Yes, Pére." Of course his father wasn't going to congratulate him for a job half done. Maybe if he lost an extra pound or two while he was he was at it that would be good enough. 

Gabriel's phone buzzes in his pocket. He tugs it out and glances at the screen. "Ah, it's time for dinner." 

Adrien quickly replaces the chair he had been sitting on to it's rightful place and follows his father out of the office. 

This will be the third dinner shared together in seven days and the eighth meal in all. Two days ago his father had been present for both breakfast and supper. There's a thick knot of hope in his stomach that his father's spike of attention in the past week isn't just a fluke that will return to normal soon enough. 

He desperately longs for things to remain like this. He doesn't want to return to taking all his meals alone. 

They sit down at the table and Adrien waits for his father to begin eating before he himself starts. He's desperately hungry by this point, but he forces himself to eat neatly and slowly under his father's gaze. 

The meal passes in silence. 

Gabriel finishes eating before he does. While he works on almost mechanically cleaning his plate of food, his father sips wine. 

Once he's done eating as well his father stands up. "You should go to bed early," Gabriel says, laying a hand on his shoulder. 

"Yes, Pére." Adrien replies, enjoying the contact. 

With that Gabriel strides towards the door. He pauses at it and says, "I'll have Nathalie bring your schoolbag up to your room, since you left it in my office." 

"Thank you, Pére." He wants to say that he'll just come grab it himself now, save Nathalie the extra work, but he knows his father won't see the point in that. 

_Don't do anything to upset the new balance_ , he chants to himself. 

Time to listen to his father than and drag himself to bed. Truthfully, he could use the sleep. 


End file.
